A year and a bit – shelf one

A lot changes in a year and a bit. 15 months ago I was looking for things to enrich my life as the most desperately dull job I’ve ever had wore me slowly down. I bought an old copy of Space Crusade, then HeroQuest, then a newer game and the rest, as they say is history.

This first year in the hobby has seen me pick up old interests, collect more games than I have the time to play, and learn to start painting again. I’ve met new people, made new friends and had new experiences from it. It already feels as much a part of my ‘being’ as videogames, so I guess there was always a core that remained interested.

Except for a few games that my son has – Kerplunk, Mouse Trap, Lost Valley Of The Dinosaurs, Hey That’s My Fish!, Loopin’ Louie – this is my collection as it stands and my thoughts on it, spread across a series of riveting posts.

Shelf one. Red November is a Pandemic/Flashpoint/Forbidden Island type co-op game whose central mechanic is far too complicated. I’ve tried 3 times to get through the rule book but no joy so far. I suspect it’ll go before too long. It’s got this whole time mechanic thing going on (not dissimilar to Space Alert I guess) but it’s the kind of thing where the theme and the challenge don’t really make it feel worthwhile trying too hard.

Heroica I love. It’s HeroQuest for the new century and my only concern is that it’s a little bit under-supported. Some of the custom boards being brought out are amazing, but I worry that its lack of depth out of the box has put a lot of people off. It’s pretty hard to find even in the official Lego shops now and the latest expansion hasn’t really turned up anywhere. My son loves it though.

DungeonQuest is like punching yourself in the eye with a pencil and liking the feeling. It’s horribly unbalanced, hopelessly mean and almost unbeatable, but if you drink beer as you play it and play it with friends, it’s entertaining. Worth the £14 it cost me off of eBay at least/

Space Alert I hankered after for a long time, got it, tried once it and it left my family (3 of us) hopelessly overwhelmed. It’s too much for my 4 year old son and I reckon it needs at least 5 players to get the most out of it. I’m glad I have it, as it was out of print for a while and I reckon it’ll be amazing when we get the right group together, but it’s going to collect dust for a while.

Dead Of Night is a print and play game that I’ve not finished building yet, along with Dungeon’ Plungin’ which is behind the light source. Those were good days working from home, at least.

Over on the right is a big box Games Workshop collection. Warhammer: Islands Of Blood is a box of miniatures I got for cheap that I simply practice painting on – I’ve literally no interest at all in tabletop wargames of that type.

Space Hulk is the third edition, coveted since I discovered it existed, glorious in its quality and going nowhere near my son for years. He can play with the first edition, 4 shelves down.

Both Warhammer Quest and Advanced HeroQuest I’d never played before getting and still haven’t. I got the former out to play with my son and discovered that it’s actually got quite a complex combat system, so plan to have a night in front of the fire sussing it out soon. It’s a crazy big box of stuff, and AHQ is slightly less so, and my hope is that as my son becomes more self aware we’ll have lots of rainy afternoons role playing and adventuring together.